1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to optics and colorimetry and, in particular, relates to tristimulus colorimeters having integral dye filters that measure the color content of light that has a response mimicking the response to color of the human eye, as may be represented by the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) color-matching functions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical filters are used in many color-related applications, including various color measurement systems, such as calorimeters. There are many types of filters, including absorptive filters, interference filters, and others. A photoelectric tristimulus colorimeter is used to measure the color of the light emitted from a light source, such as a computer display screen. This is an emissive color measurement, but there are also reflective color measurement devices. An emissive photoelectric calorimeter directs the light from the light source to be measured through an optical system toward three or more photoelectric detecting devices. A primary filter is positioned in front of each photoelectric detecting device. Each primary filter conforms, as close as possible, the spectral sensitivity of the photoelectric detecting device to the respective color-matching functions. A measuring device, which is connected to the photoelectric detecting devices, reads or measures the amounts of the respective primaries or tristimulus values in response to the incident light.
Although it is theoretically possible to design primary filters exactly corresponding to an ideal, it is practically impossible to manufacture primary filters having transmission factors exactly corresponding to the ideal. This is because an error is inherent in measuring primary or tristimulus values of the color sample. This error is caused by differences between actual and theoretical transmission factors of the primary filters.
Past attempts to correct this error have involved attempts to alter the transmission factor characteristics of the primary filters by forming the primary filters using a number of superimposed colored plates. However, because the spectral characteristics of the colored plates depend upon the components of the materials used in the plates—normally glass—it was generally impossible to exactly match the theoretical transmission factors. It was prohibitively difficult to accurately duplicate the theoretical transmission values over the complete wavelength range of the primaries or tristimulus values. These past attempts that increased the number of plates, undesirably decreased the amount of light received or passed through the primary filter. In addition, past attempts to fabricate primary filters by carefully superimposing a number of plates in an attempt to match theoretical transmission factors were time consuming and expensive to make.